Thursday, March 23, 2017

Mosul Campaign Day 157, March 22, 2017

The Iraqi forces (ISF) were still slowly but surely pushing
into the Old City district of west Mosul. The Golden Division attacked the Yabsaat,
Yarmouk, Rajim
al-Hadid and Wai al-Ain areas, while the apartments in Yarmouk
were freed. There was still fighting in Nablus
and Resala, which were officially declared cleared
yesterday. The Federal Police were also forced to retreat in Jadid due to Islamic
State attacks. That neighborhood was freed on March 12.
There were also heavy clashes in Bab
al-Tob. So far the ISF have only penetrated into the perimeter of the Old
City. Poor weather has limited air support. The dense layout of the sector has
meant the Iraqis usually have to dismount and move street to street, house to
house. IS is also putting up a stiff defense.

The army and Hashd are still going through the Badush
district to the west of the city, where a town
and a bridge
were reached. These units are supposed to eventually reach Mosul itself, but at
the pace their moving they may just stay on the perimeter.

Medecins
Sans Frontiers, a French aid group warned that casualties flowing out of
Mosul were overwhelming medical facilities. There is a lack of medical care in
and outside the city, and the group had seen more than 1,500 urgent care
patients in the last two months from the conflict. The government and NGOs have
tried to set up trauma centers close to the front with more serious cases being
sent to Irbil. The number of dead and wounded has been much higher in east
Mosul than the east however straining resources. On March 22 for example, there
were 254 civilian casualties reported from IS mortar fire and Coalition and
Iraqi air strikes.

There is a constant flow of people in and out of Mosul. The
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported
that on average 9,000 people per day were being screened at Hamam al-Alil, up
from 5,000 just a few days before. The camps to the south of Mosul are
overflowing, but some space has opened up as 1,007 families went back to east
Mosul. Some of the displaced (IDPs) coming out of the western section of the
city are also being redirected to the east because there is no room for them in
camps. IDPs talk about the lack
of food and medicine, sky rocketing prices because of shortages, and heavy
casualties as the reason why so many people are fleeing the city. The
government wanted people to stay inside Mosul because neither it nor aid groups
had the resources to deal with a large number of people, but that has not
happened and a humanitarian crisis is brewing as a result.

Najaf and Hashd groups have organized aid convoys to deliver
supplies to the people of Mosul. Reuters noted that
this was being met with a mix of relief and apprehension by residents. A former
and a current Ninewa councilman, and a man voiced concerns about Hashd groups
coming into the city feeling that they were trying to assert their power in the
city. Baghdad did not allow any Hashd units to take part in the assault on
Mosul because of fears of the citizens that they might carry out abuses that
have happened in other parts of the country during the war against the Islamic
State. Even when those groups are trying to help the population they are still
suspicions about their intentions.

Finally, Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a paper
on the mass grave discovered in a sinkhole near the town of Khafsa. It
interviewed several residents who said that they had witnessed IS executing
people there from 2014-2015. Satellite photos showed that the group filled in
the site between March to June 2015. The area is very dangerous since the
militants left behind IEDs along the perimeter. HRW called on Baghdad to seal
off the site so that it can be thoroughly excavated, a memorial be created, and
support given to the families of the victims.

Iraq History Timeline

About Me

Musings On Iraq was started in 2008 to explain the political, economic, security and cultural situation in Iraq via original articles and interviews. I have written for the Jamestown Foundation, Tom Ricks’ Best Defense at Foreign Policy and the Daily Beast, and was responsible for a chapter in the book Volatile Landscape: Iraq And Its Insurgent Movements. My work has been published in Iraq via NRT, AK News, Al-Mada, Sotaliraq, All Iraq News, and Ur News all in Iraq. I was interviewed on BBC Radio 5, Radio Sputnik, CCTV and TRT World News TV, and have appeared in CNN, the Christian Science Monitor, The National, Columbia Journalism Review, Mother Jones, PBS’ Frontline, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Institute for the Study of War, Radio Free Iraq, Rudaw, and others. I have also been cited in Iraq From war To A New Authoritarianism by Toby Dodge, Imagining the Nation Nationalism, Sectarianism and Socio-Political Conflict in Iraq by Harith al-Qarawee, ISIS Inside the Army of Terror by Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassahn, The Rise of the Islamic State by Patrick Cocburn, and others. If you wish to contact me personally my email is: motown67@aol.com